At any rate, it's the way Governor Rick Perry wants it and it's here now.

If you have a concealed carry handgun license and you're packing, you can enter the “express” lane at the Texas capitol building metal detectors.

Legislators, lobbyists, officials and business men are rushing to get themselves licensed to carry. This way, you don't have to stand in line for long. Just let them scan that handgun license, put your keys or purse in the tray, and you're off like a flash.

The Governor, who is known to often carry a .380 automatic in his boot, was aghast when the magnetometers were installed. He decried the loss of free-wheeling laissez faire that visitors had always enjoyed under the rotunda. Back then, no one paid much attention to your bidness. That all changed recently when a dude showed up at the main entrance busting caps and waving his hog leg.

Pistol packers who favor having and not needing rather than needing and not having have prevailed. Those who go armed will be ready and able to cancel any fool's ticket who gets to squeezing them off inside the pink granite walls.